title: Ground tit genome reveals avian adaptation to living at high altitudes in the Tibetan plateau.
abstract: The ground tit (Parus humilis) is endemic to the Tibetan plateau. It is a member of family Paridae but it was long thought to be related to the ground jays because of their morphological similarities. Here we present the ground tit's genome and re-sequence two tits and one ground jay, to clarify this controversially taxonomic status and uncover its genetic adaptations to the Tibetan plateau. Our results show that ground tit groups with two tits and it diverges from them between 7.7 and 9.9 Mya. Compared with other avian genomes, ground tit shows expansion in genes linked to energy metabolism and contractions in genes involved in immune and olfactory perception. We also found positively selected and rapidly evolving genes in hypoxia response and skeletal development. These results indicated that ground tit evolves basic strategies and 'tit-to-jay' change for coping with the life in an extreme environment.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Naijian
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Guangyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Shilin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Jinbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ruiying
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xuehong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaojia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Wenjuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Per G P
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Ericson
authors.forename: Sankar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Ruiqiang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fumin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lei
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D000531:Altitude; D000818:Animals; D030161:Avian Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D005843:Geography; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000235:genetics; D007107:Immune System / Q000378:metabolism; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D005810:Multigene Family; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D030161:Avian Proteins